I was making a batch of mousseline this weekend, and I thought I’d report my results making it over a two-day period.

On Saturday, I did the “sugar-egg white” part.  This was a fairly sizeable batch - 485g whites, which required 3.25 lbs butter. I covered the whipped/sugared whites and fridged it overnight.

On Sunday, I noticed the whites had shrunk some.

I took the whites and butter out of the fridge around 12:15 so they’d have 3 hours to come to room temp.  They were around 68 degrees when I was ready to work with them.

I was unflavored with a little over 1/2 the batch and strawberry with the other half, so I whipped half of the butter and started dishing-up half of the whites (by weight). 

As I was dishing, I noticed that there was a pool of liquid at the bottom of the whites—looked like between 1 and 2 cups!  So I dished the whites back in and mixed them with the liquid.  They were hte consistency of melted ice cream now, rather than “froofy”.

However, I pitched half of it into my butter and, in true mousseline fashion, mixed—slight expected curdle followed by a nice, creamy, stiff mousseline.  Packed up that half, and made the rest, adding about 3 oz. of powdered, freeze-dried strawberries mixed with a little water ot make a thick paste.  Super-fruity and fresh.

So, in case you ever want to make mousseline, but don’t have time to do it all with the cooling and what-not, you can make it over two days without stressing about the whites sort of weeping overnight.

—ak

p.s. I took 1 c. of the plain and added a substantial amount of matcha powder for a nice dark green.  I am doing an experiment to see if the intense grass flavor is as elusive as it is said to be.  In fact, I hope it generally goes away to leave me with a (more or less) ‘plain,’ but green, mousseline.

Wow Anne, my hat is off to you for maintaining your cool demeanor and not panicking when you saw that much liquid in the bottom of the bowl.  I would surely have freaked out and thought the whole thing was beyond saving…  Thanks for sharing your experience, though I think I would still be too nervous to try this over two days after hearing your story!!

That’s really interesting, I would have thought that the hot syrup would have kept the whites from watering out.  You stored it after adding the hot sugar syrup, right?  I always have a lot of left over egg whites lying around, maybe I should see what’s up with Italian meringue.  Sounds similar to Liza’s lemon meringue pie experience.

Thanks, all!

Julie, I did store it after adding the hot sugar syrup.  I let the syrup get to about 252 to make sure it was “really” 250, as it’s sort of shallow in the pan.  A couple of things that could have contributed, in case that helps your thoughts on it, are that although my mixing bowl was only about 1/2 full of stiff-peaked whites, by the time I added all the sugar syrup, they had “froofed” so that my 8 quart mixing bowl was FULL.  I think I got them mixed well, but one never knows.  Of course, I used a hand-mixer.  It was all good and hot, though, so I can’t imagine any egg whites escaping sugar-treatment.

Loopy, I didn’t worry too much because I remembered how amazingly well the butter emulsified all that runny custard when I made the SMBC!!!  Also, I figured it’s no more liquid, in reality, than would be there if it were suspended in egg whites, but sometimes my cavalier attitude doesn’t work out in the end.  Which leads me to ask now that I’m sort of paranoid…Julie, do you think there is any worry about the completed mousseline “weeping” on the completed cake? I figure I can let the mousseline really come to super-soft room temp and see if it is behaving before frosting.  If it looks like it wants to weep, I can sort cut lines through it like curd and drain it like cheese.  If it did weep into the cake, would it act like a syrup—i.e., just sort of moisten it (in a good way)?  If so, I can always frost the cake Miette Tomboy-style and forgo the sides.

It was really quite stiff, so I feel pretty confident in it, but it doesn’t hurt to have contingency plans!

Thanks!  Yikes! (sort of)

—ak

Anne, you’re navigating in uncharted territory!  It’s a great idea to bring a little up to room temp and let it sit for a while to see if it waters out.  If it does water out, a little will be absorbed by the cake.  I would think it’d be fine and have no problems, but then I had also thought the Italian meringue wouldn’t weep…

Completed, emulsified Mousseline can hold a fair amount of liquid (like liqueur or puree), so I think it’s reasonable to hope for the best.  Keep us posted.

Will do!  Thanks again for all your thoughts.  It’s for a July cake, so it will be a little while.  It was pretty derned stiff, because I used no alcohol in it and very little liquid in the powdered strawberries, so I feel pretty confident!!!!  You will surely see the final results—for better or worse!!!!!

Well, Anne, now you have all our curiosity up. How did the green powder batch taste? Any photos to go along with your tale or did you make all this up in your sleep? lol! Julia always said it was as important to know what didn’t work as to know what did work. Your kind of postings are a great asset to this community. I learn daily from you all. SO much to bake, so little time. My new bread book of Bernard Clayton’s arrived in today’s mail(500+ pages). That should keep me busy after I finish reading Rose’s thesis. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Hi, Kyle!

Thanks for your reminder—I meant to taste the greenie last night, so at least I got to taste it this morning.  It is slightly less pronounced, but still ecchy.  I think I need to do the opposite of the care-and-feeding-of-your-matcha advice.  I think I will leave it loosely covered, in the light, in a warm area for a bit, and see if that destroys the flavor.  Then I might get a decent green buttercream!  It makes a lovely green color, though.

Here are some color samples, photographed while frozen.

Unless something transpires during the composing of the cake, which will be in a couple of weeks, we’ll all know the end of the story in July, because that is when the cake will be served!!

—ak

Anne, As you know from the lemonade curd variation in TCB, green is a difficult color. I think you may be onto something with mellowing the flavor. Keep me posted!